I hear about the breakdown of the family a lot, not least from LDS sources. But I’d like to point out something about how we can strengthen the family. The families that our foremothers had were strong because they were subservient and didn’t try for any equal partnerships in marriage. They did all the dirty work, or had servants do it, and that was it. Nowadays, servants in the US at least cost too much, because there are other options for people from the oppressed classes and for people of color. Nowadays, divorce in the western world is up because women have other options than total economic dependence on males for their own livelihoods and that of their children. It’s because our society is so much more just than in years past that the traditional family has broken down. That is not a bad thing at all. It’s a huge advance morally.

But what about those families? Don’t we need them? You bet we do! How can we get them back? How about men pulling their share? (I’m preaching to the choir here, of course, because LDS men get taught this by the church from their earliest youth.) But like, we could have school training courses for both boys and girls on parenting. We could have babysitting qualifications be encouraged in scouting. We could show pictures in the media of successful males with their families, holding children, and so on, the same as we do for women. In other words, we could focus on the new type of family where equal partnership has replaced economic duress as the glue that holds the thing together. If we did that, then perhaps the voters would follow.

[Ed.-- comment at BCC, by preference]

And the story from the Texas chapel is reminiscent of stories from pioneer days. “You can shoot one of us, two if you’re quick. But that leaves four who are going to take that gun from you and shove it where the sun don’t shine.”